Twas two days before Christmas, and all through my tummy, not an intestine was digesting, not even a crumb-y. My feeding bags hung on the IV pole with care, in hopes that nutrition soon would be there. With my dogs and I laying a-snug in my bed, and Muppet Christmas carols playing through earbuds in my head, knitting a last-minute Christmas day gift, I smile, content, and my spirits do lift.

Okay, I’m not a poet, and I certainly know it. So here’s a picture of my adorable dogs to make up for it.

But there is a point to my sappy spoonie story-time, and that is a message I want everyone with chronic illness to realize, that I have slowly realized in my past four years with chronic illness. [Read more…]

Well, it turns out that Cartman was wrong. There is nothing wrong with being ginger.

I have been totally ging-ified for several years now, because, it turns out, ginger is one of my most effective medicines.

Since I have gastroparesis, one of my biggest and most debilitating symptoms is chronic nausea. And I do many different things to try and manage it (look to a future post for that one), but my absolute favorite is ginger.

Ginger. Ginger. Ginger. And more ginger.

Now, if you’re like “Oh, I’ve tried ginger ale and it doesn’t do much.” Well, odds are, you’re drinking the average mass marketed ginger ale, like Schwepps or Gosling, which means you’re actually not getting real ginger ale. You’re getting carbonated sugar water with artificial ginger taste. And sometimes carbonated sugar water can help, because of the bubbles, but you’re not getting the benefit of ginger.

Ginger is kind of a miracle plant. It has a lot of healing properties and, most importantly for spoonies with nausea, it aids digestion and soothes the stomach. So when you’re looking for something to really help your tummy aches, you want some real, honest-to-goodness ginger. And the best part is that, unlike most medicines, there are really no bad side effects to consuming ginger.

So now the question is, how do I get this ginger into my body? Well, after many years of trying just about every ginger product available in the continental U.S., I am here to share my favorite products! [Read more…]

Hey everyone. So, last February was the end of a very long winter for me. And facing similar struggles was my good friend Catherine Richardson. Catherine and I talk pretty much everyday, because, well, she’s an awesome sauce spoonie and always fun to talk to. We make jokes about our confusing bodies and share our constant poop struggles (true friendship, guys). We’ve never been in the same room, or even the same country, but when you can casually ask somebody, “How’s the poop coming?” that starts to become a lot less important.

I’m spending a lot of this post talking about poop, which actually has nothing to do with what I actually want to talk about. I could blame the brain fog here, but I think we all know by now I’m just a senile old woman stuck in a 25 year old body. [Read more…]

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None of the opinions or experiences expressed on this site is professional medical advice tailored to your own situation. Please consult a medical professional before making any changes to your health management plan.